Baltimore police are carrying out separate investigations into violent incidents that unfolded overnight in Fells Point.

A triple-shooting inside a restaurant and a violent crash that evolved out of a dispute are unrelated, Baltimore police said. The incidents happened within walking distance of one another.

"It's a coincidence that they happened in close proximity, but neither has anything to do with the other," Baltimore police spokesman TJ Smith said Saturday.

Police arrested a man, identified as Orlando Redd, 37, of Parkville, in a violent series of events captured on video. Police said Redd was involved in an assault that led to a van twice striking a parked vehicle on Broadway, before it drove in reverse, onto a sidewalk, running over a 27-year-old woman who had just departed a bar. The woman was hospitalized with serious injuries, but she is expected to survive, Smith said.

As hundreds rallied at the Western District police station for Freddie Gray on April 18, the day before his death, Dawan Hawkins was shot five times by a police officer about a mile to the west.

Despite the timing amid swelling outrage about allegations of police brutality, Hawkins' case never garnered similar attention to that of Gray. This week, 10 months later, the 28-year-old went on trial on charges of first-degree assault, with prosecutors saying he fled a traffic stop and pointed a gun at an officer.

Hawkins' attorney, public defender Martin Cohen, made a spectacular claim to the jury in closing arguments: that the gun found on Hawkins had been planted by officers because one of them had shot an unarmed man.

He supported his claim by pointing to an admission by police that the gun had been washed and cleaned before it could be tested for DNA or fingerprints. Hawkins can also be heard in the background of police dispatch tapes saying, "I don't got nothing, sir!", Cohen said.

But Assistant State's Attorney Adam Chaudry told the jury not to be deceived.

"I love a good conspiracy theory, ladies and gentlemen, but what you just heard is beyond…," Chaudry said.

The trial happened to take place in front of Judge Barry Williams, who is overseeing the trials of the officers charged in Gray's death. It was held in his normal courtroom, not the larger one used to accommodate media and spectators. There were just two watching this proceeding: Hawkins' uncle and sister. ...more at linkhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryla ... story.html

_________________Do not go gentle into that good night.___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Porter's trial is already on hold and today.. so are the other 5 trials. Pending a Maryland supreme court hearing (oral submissions ) 3rd March. Decision to come some time later... could be as late as September.

On the face of it (from a BLM protards POV)... the system has simply stopped taking action on all 6. And..... See info in Nero trial threadviewtopic.php?f=124&t=1647&p=113437#p113437Separate legal questions for the court to consider in the two cases appealed by Porter and the three appealed by the state.

Maybe they can slow the legal process down into the next presidency and Trump's justice department can throw Mosby and all her cohorts straight into prison. The case built on quicksand and racism seems to be sinking fast.

_________________If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

ANNAPOLIS | State lawmakers are moving to improve protections for residents who believe they have been mistreated by the police, but critics said Tuesday the changes could end up shielding officers from scrutiny in misconduct cases.

At a time when police behavior is under scrutiny nationally, the critics told the General Assembly it needs to bring more oversight, not less, to rogue officers. They objected to changes that would give police chiefs and accused officers a chance to appoint their own representatives to disciplinary panels, thereby stacking the panels in favor of the officers.

The Rev. Westley West acquitted of charges stemming from protestJessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun

The Rev. Westley West, a Baltimore pastor running for City Council, was acquitted on Wednesday of charges stemming from a protest during a court hearing for the officers charged in the Freddie Gray case in September.

Jurors found West, 27, not guilty of disturbance of the peace and failure to obey law enforcement, said his attorney Donald Wright. Prosecutors dropped charges of attempting to incite a riot, malicious destruction of property, disorderly conduct, and false imprisonment before the trial, Wright said.

The fact that they rarely arrest protards, and it seems dont punish them on rare occasions that they do, and that they get away with stuff, has led to them feeling emboldened and entitled to wreck havoc.

_________________Do not go gentle into that good night.___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

BALTIMORE —For years, if you have wanted to walk the steps of Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall or Harriet Tubman, you may have taken a historical tour. Now, there's a different type of tour based on what happened to 25-year-old Freddie Gray and how the city reacted.

Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester community is by no means a traditional tourist destination. It is where Gray lived and died, and now, where you can take what is called the "Freddie Gray Tour of Baltimore."

Louis Fields, president of the African-American Tourism Council of Maryland, leads the tour.

This is what caught my eye last night reading the article. Fields has competition around the corner.

Fields has not set a specific fee for the tour, but he is sensitive that he does not want to be profiting off of this loss of life. Another company, Renaissance Production and Tours, offers its own version, calling it, "From Civil Rights to Civil Wrongs."

ARNOLD, Md. —It was a revealing night Wednesday at Anne Arundel Community College as Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis was invited as part of the school's guest lecture series.

Many thought Davis would simply rehash what was already known about April's riots that occurred in the wake of the police in-custody death of Freddie Gray. Instead, he shared details about those days that many may have not heard until now.

Davis gave a detailed account of last April's unrest. Davis, who was a deputy under former Commissioner Anthony Batts at the time, was candid about the department's lack of preparation, training and equipment.

"We still had and, this is true, we still had civil disturbance helmets leftover from 1968 that were issued to Baltimore police officers," Davis said.

Using a slideshow of riot photos, Davis dissected key decisions and mistakes. First on April 25, when protests turned violent at Camden Yards, Davis said one police officer's reaction led to destruction. He didn't say what that reaction was.

"It's often a single spark that kind of takes it from zero to 60, just like that," Davis said. "And the singular spark down at Camden Yards that night was a very emotional response, not by a rookie police officer, but by a veteran police officer."

On April 27, when things escalated into a riot, Davis said calls for regular service should have been suspended. He said the Penn-North community spontaneously became ground zero because one officer responded to an unrelated theft call at a store.[...]And, on April 26, the day before the main riots, Davis said the department made a big mistake by issuing a statement that gangs were looking for trouble the next day.

"That was based on some very, very loose information that should not have been communicated," Davis said. "The gangs got upset about it."

A teen who smashed a traffic cone through the windshield of a car during April's unrest following the death of Freddie Gray pleaded guilty Monday, agreeing to a deal that includes six months in jail and hundreds of hours of community service, prosecutors confirmed.

The plea deal for Allen Bullock, 19, was offered by Circuit Judge Charles Peters and calls for a 12-year prison sentence, with all but six months suspended. He will be placed on five years' probation after serving that term, during which time he has agreed to complete 400 hours of community service and earn a high school equivalency certificate, or GED.

Prosecutors had sought more than nine years in prison for Bullock.

"They wanted to make an example out of him," said Bullock's attorney, J. Wyndal Gordon. "They started out with the $500,000 bail, then continued on to these types of plea offers that were really unacceptable. They force you to go to trial, and trial may not be the best place to resolve this matter."